Joel, my thoughtful husband, read my entry from last night and pointed me to John Donne’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” essay. I believe I read this essay in highschool, but by now all I remembered from it were the two most quoted lines (and if you don’t remember them, go read the essay).
Two things caught my attention on this reading. I love his comparison of death to a translator. He says the following: “God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God’s hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another.” Perhaps it’s just another euphemism… another way to make us feel better about death. But I like it. The other thing I noticed speicifically was that he mentions the idea of another person’s death making you think of the danger to yourself. He says, “if by this consideration of another’s danger I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security.” So the way he looked at it, we can see that paranoia as a good thing because it can turn us back towards God. That seems like a much better reaction than living in a bubble.
Anyway, today is Halloween… All Hallow’s Eve… the eve before All Saint’s Day. Halloween does have an interesting history, and one which people don’t seem to agree on fully. It’s an old holiday, we can say that much. We can also say that the way we celebrate it now is, in historic terms, a recent thing.
Alexis is very much looking forward to dressing up as a clown this evening. 🙂 If I have time to find my clown costume, I may dress up, too. We’re going to a party at our church called a Hallelujah party. The kids go from room to room in the church, seeing puppet shows, playing games, and gathering candy. No scary costumes are allowed, so none of the parents of little ones have to be afraid to bring them. It’s a neat alternative to the more common trick-or-treating.
Time to go and try to rest before Branwen needs to nurse again and then Alexis wakes up from her nap. We have an exciting evening of toddler fun ahead of us. 🙂